TOKYO -- Japan is seeing a surge in visitors from predominately Muslim countries in Southeast Asia, for business as well as tourism. The trend is widening a niche in the Japanese culinary market: food prepared in accordance with Islamic law. Akm

BANGKOK -- With no resolution in sight for the Thai political deadlock, the focus is shifting to the possibility that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will lose her job on account of charges pressed by an anti-corruption commission. The Consti

BANGKOK -- The Constitutional Court nullified last month's general election Friday, ensuring that Thailand will continue to lack effective leadership for some time. The Feb. 2 lower house vote was voided because anti-government protesters disrup

TOKYO -- With its smoothness and easy grip, Mitsubishi Pencil's ballpoint pens are winning fans across Asia, where the written word is often composed of intricate characters. Mitsubishi Pencil, which was founded in 1887 and is not affiliated with

TOKYO -- The state of emergency imposed on Bangkok for the last two months was lifted on Wednesday, giving Thailand's tourism industry and retailers hope that customers will return. The Crowne Plaza Bangkok Lumpini Park, a luxury hotel popular w

NAGOYA -- A number of Japanese machine tool manufacturers are bolstering their Southeast Asian operations, expecting higher demand from automakers over the medium to long term despite economic concerns. Okuma recently spent nearly 1 billion yen

TOKYO -- Abenomics, where are you? Japan's trade balance with the rest of Asia is deteriorating. While imports from Asia have been increasing sharply, exports did not grow as expected, despite the weaker yen. What is more, Japan was replaced

Forward-looking Asian companies are using international standards to help globalize their product and service lines. Take the recent example of robots. Japanese companies have established themselves among the pioneers in this field. Robotic devi

SINGAPORE -- The months-long political standoff in Thailand is casting a shadow over the country's private sector, particularly companies linked to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Their stocks have been sold heavily as anti-government prot

BANGKOK -- Premchai Karnasuta, president of Italian-Thai Development, has spearheaded to make his company a major general contractor in Southeast Asia. Generally viewed as a businessman who is outspoken and acts boldly, Premchai is resolved to this

SEOUL -- Bae Chul-han works with the world's No. 1 and No. 2 smartphone makers. His company, Interflex, sells field programmable circuit boards for use in smartphones, to Apple of the U.S., along with South Korea's Samsung Electronics. Interflex

BEIJING -- Zhang Yong keeps it in the family. His company, Sichuan Haidilao Catering, only hires people that care for their parents. Sichuan Haidilao operates a chain of about 90 restaurants in 24 Chinese cities that sell hot pots -- spicy stews

MUMBAI -- Anand Mahindra's key to success is maintaining a solid corporate structure. Among Indian auto-related companies, special attention in 2014 is focused on the Mahindra & Mahindra group. It overtook Indian rival Tata Motors at home to bec

TOKYO -- The export price of Thai long-grain rice -- the international benchmark -- has fallen to around $450 a ton, the lowest since January 2008, as the government sells off its stocks. While the world produces 470 million tons of rice a year,

SINGAPORE -- The months-long political standoff in Thailand has cast a shadow over the country's businesses, particularly ones considered linked to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. These stocks have been sold heavily as anti-government prot

BANGKOK -- For Southeast Asia's increasingly affluent urbanites, enjoying a freshly brewed cup of coffee or latte at a stylish cafe is no longer just a rare treat. In Thailand, consumers' growing appetite for quality coffee has both domestic and

TOKYO -- From Asia to the Middle East, Japanese companies are moving into markets where water demand is surging. Last month, Hitachi started building a large water desalination plant at the mouth of the Shatt-al-Arab river in Basra, Iraq's secon

BANGKOK -- Japanese hotels, railway operators, and retailers are targeting Thailand with a new marketing push seeking to capitalize on the nation's burgeoning Japan cravings. Thai visitors to Japan have grown increasingly since the relaxing of

TOKYO -- Mikimoto is accelerating Chinese and Southeast Asian openings of jewelry stores, looking to cultivate clients among affluent consumers to offset a projected decline at home. Locations in China will increase from eight at present to 10 b